After all this messing around with old, hot, and frankly useless hardware I've got floating around, I'm sick of it. I need something completely different for my second machine.
Essentially this has to be a low power system - #1 priority, I want it to sit in the background and serve files, record from a TV tuner card and generally do donkey work. In order for it to serve 2 purposes, and therefore make financial sense, I also need to to be a full-fledged media player; 720p required, 1080p desirable (for upgradability). Essentially the only way I'm going to get such a low power machine (sub 100 watts absolute maximum) is with a modern video card taking all of the processing away from the CPU.
My immediate thought was the Atom 330 in a custom SFF case - I like a project - but I've not found one with a PCI Express slot. Has anyone experience with the Atom in a decent, PCI express motherboard? Perhaps the old low power Celeron board would suffice? I'd love to take on a VIA C7, but again, I'm not so sure of the suitability. Has AMD got anything in this segment?
Of course secondary here is the requirement for a video card. HD 3450 maybe? I might want it to upscale some N64 Emulators or such so a little bit of 3d capability would be nice, but not if it compromises the x264, wmv-hd or other functions. Have NVidia got anything similar with a small power draw?
Opinions appreciated. Itching to get started on this one actually :)